He’s right – and the Aggies were also right to avoid the ampersand (“A&M”) in any new website, as the feisty little character has caused loads of online problems over the years (online Heisman voters, for instance, were long asked to type in “A and M” for any potential Aggies on the ballot).

Anyway, 12thMan.com is up and running, and A&M interim vice president for marketing and communications Shane Hinckley helped secure the domain from a private party, in reaching an undisclosed financial agreement.

“The ‘12th Man’ is the most well-known college trademark in the nation,” Hinckley said.

The sharp website will still be what A&M fans have come to expect from the official stop for Aggies athletics – it’s just easier to get to these days.

“From a practical standpoint, we save some letters and it’s easier to spell,” Cook said. “AggieAthletics.com is a mouthful. This is much more simple in terms of a web identity – and it’s the one brand that all Aggies identify with.”

“You not only have to protect your trademark, you have to promote it,” Cook said. “Just having ‘Home of the 12th Man’ on the façade of the football stadium isn’t enough. We have to be aggressive in promoting it.”

For now, both 12thMan.com and AggieAthletics.com point clickers toward the home of A&M sports, and along those lines 12thMan2014.com is up and running to help sell season tickets for an expanded Kyle Field this season (expected to hold about 106,000 fans, before dropping to 102,500 for the finished product in 2015).

Meanwhile Cook and Hinckley, the two primary catalysts of 12thMan.com, can finally take some satisfaction in the athletic department’s new offering.

“For the last five or six years we thought securing ‘12thMan.com’ was central to our branding efforts online,” Cook said. “This has been a long time coming.”